What's in store for the Muppets in 2012 article

[beaker]

This was one of the top headlines on MSNBC:

Muppets to be one of the big 2012 comebacks:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45798074/ns/business-forbes_com/#.TwJMfPl-dtU

(literally at the top of the news site with a picture)

 

[beaker]

It's so depressing Jim died when that decade came to a close. Some of the best Muppet work came out in the 80's. I've always treasured 80's Sesame Street, even over the 1970's episodes... we had Fraggle Rock and that needs no explanation... I really do love the concept of Jim Henson Hour. Too bad that didn't get the boost of syndication that The Muppet Show enjoyed. There was just so many amazing advancements in Henson at that time, and we got a lot of great experimental stuff out of it. Too bad it's like they tried to forget JHH ever existed. I'd love to see Digit come back as a background character or something.

Yeah it's truly tragic some of the Muppets and JHC best work came in the twilight years of Jim Henson. Ack...forgot about Muppetvision 3d. I love both seeing it in person and the nice hd scan someone posted on youtube. Yeah it seemed like JHC was truly ahead of the time. I mean forget Sid...they were doing hand controlled real time cgi back in the late 80's. So much innovation...I wonder what would have happened had Jim Henson had another good ten years of health. We'd probably woulda ended up seeing Disneyland with a more full Muppet theme park area.

 

[mupcollector1]

Need I even bother saying that Roger Langridge not only managed to capture the spirit of The Muppet Show, but also improved upon it as well. If you haven't checked out the comics already, you've missed out completely.

The comics you mentioned, are those the New Muppet comics that recently came out? Are they good? I sort stayed away from them because the illustrations I felt were kind of off, like the illustrator would add teeth on Kermit or Scooter and give Gonzo blue eyes in one panel or something like that. But I did breifly look at a comic at a comic store just to check out the writing, I guess it's simular to The Muppet Show but probably not as irreverently funny as the real thing of course. Then again, I only read a page. But it's cool to see that the background characters are actually characters that excited in The Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight. Even Muppet Show characters that were probably one used for a gag or two made an apperance in the comics which I thought was pretty cool. Though I totally wish that the illustrations were as great as say "The Muppet Show Book" but I guess it's to fit a comics like style probably.

But yeah Jim was totally into coming up with new ideas and thinking of the future of the media and stuff like that. You know what was truely amazing about him was he was totally a head of his time. I've seen an interview that was from 1982 or 1983 talking about The Dark Crystal, and he was already talking about Cable television. And in 1990, there's a film from 7 days before his passing. I think it's called Handycam Experiment, And he is talking about how the future of video was all going to be within a small video camera and there's going to be a whole new version of television and indie film. And this was 20 years before film makers could afford cameras like that. AMAZING!

Probably one of the greatest last projects he created was Dinosaurs, even though it wasn't made until 1991, the basic idea was his. Half a sitcom about a dysfunctional family and the other half a satirical show satirizing human society getting worse but simbolizing it with Dinosaurs and figuring out a satirical comedic way of why Dinosaurs became extinct. LOL Amazing Show.

But yeah, I agree, I totally wished Jim was still living, just to think what really cool projects he could have made within the next 20 years. From my knowledge I know that Muppet High (a TV series and a pop culture spoof of teen life in the 1950s) was an idea, and The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made (Where Gonzo is directing the next Muppet Movie and running out of budget money every minute) was in the plans.

 

[beaker]

Yeah that 1990 vhs promo with Jim talking about the future was amazing, he could might as well have been talking about a proto Youtube. I mean that's where we're at: user generated content that is seen by more people than even top tv shows

I would love to see Cheapest Muppet Movie made...would be nice to see a Muppet film shot in an indie film style over the hyper stylized ADHD modern look.

As far as the Muppet comics, they were amazing. I've never seen the zanyness of the Muppet Show captures so perfectly in illustrated form, other than the great 1978 illustrated book.

 

[Drtooth]

The comics you mentioned, are those the New Muppet comics that recently came out? Are they good? I sort stayed away from them because the illustrations I felt were kind of off, like the illustrator would add teeth on Kermit or Scooter and give Gonzo blue eyes in one panel or something like that. But I did breifly look at a comic at a comic store just to check out the writing, I guess it's simular to The Muppet Show but probably not as irreverently funny as the real thing of course. Then again, I only read a page. But it's cool to see that the background characters are actually characters that excited in The Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight. Even Muppet Show characters that were probably one used for a gag or two made an apperance in the comics which I thought was pretty cool. Though I totally wish that the illustrations were as great as say "The Muppet Show Book" but I guess it's to fit a comics like style probably.

If we're going to complain about how the art Roger gave us wasn't slavishly copied from style guides, the discussion ends here. There is NOTHING wrong with a comic book artist's interpretation if its his own style. Sure, the Muppet Robin Hood artist was told to blindly copy Roger, making some very off looking characters... I've literally read hundreds of licensed character based comics... from the Dell era to the indies of today. I've seen real crap. Ever read a Carlton Comics Flintstones? it's TERRIBLE! Messy art work, a talking Dino? I wasted 75 cents on that Flintstones.

Roger embodied the Muppet show... even improved upon the format. Personally, the BEST artwork in the Muppet comics were those who added a style to it. Roger, Amy, Shelli, and James did wonderful jobs with these comics. And why? They all had different styles of art.

 

[DannyRWW]

Roger embodied the Muppet show... even improved upon the format. Personally, the BEST artwork in the Muppet comics were those who added a style to it. Roger, Amy, Shelli, and James did wonderful jobs with these comics. And why? They all had different styles of art.

I agree...the ones that were the best were the ones that were most creative with their interpretations.

 

[Drtooth]

That was basically everyone but the guy who did Robin Hood I listed... I still think that guy deserved another chance, though.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

yeah same here, the ONLY thing that REALLY bothered me too was some Muppets (like Kermit & Gonzo) having teeth!

 

[Drtooth]

Any cartoonist will tell you, teeth are expressive. The hardest thing about drawing Muppets is resisting the urge to have them grit teeth when they have none, and trying to find a reasonable substitute. I draw a LOT of teeth gritting.

Amy managed to get the expressions of the Muppets to match their puppet counterparts, especially Miss Piggy... Amy did NOT shudder at the thought of crinkling up Piggy's nose to express anger, much like the puppet does. Roger's approach was more of a comic book literalism.

 

[beaker]

If we're going to complain about how the art Roger gave us wasn't slavishly copied from style guides, the discussion ends here. There is NOTHING wrong with a comic book artist's interpretation if its his own style. Sure, the Muppet Robin Hood artist was told to blindly copy Roger, making some very off looking characters... I've literally read hundreds of licensed character based comics... from the Dell era to the indies of today. I've seen real crap. Ever read a Carlton Comics Flintstones? it's TERRIBLE! Messy art work, a talking Dino? I wasted 75 cents on that Flintstones.

Roger embodied the Muppet show... even improved upon the format. Personally, the BEST artwork in the Muppet comics were those who added a style to it. Roger, Amy, Shelli, and James did wonderful jobs with these comics. And why? They all had different styles of art.

So true. A few years ago everyone was dogging on Landgridge's style, and I was one of the few going "wait a second, this is actually a pretty fresh and inventive take that works." NOW everyone loves it, but originally very few seemed to be ok with it.

It's too bad they never reprinted the 1978 illustrated Muppet Show book, as that was some of the most beautiful renditions I've seen. But yeah, the Boom comics were special in that they were done well and we got so many of them